A Bruce Lee pin or an Enter the Dragon Pin would be a must buy for me. Lots of material for game. Have Bruce’s kiai be the sound when you hit the bumpers, gotta have “Bullshit Mr Han Man” as the call out when you drain, “O’Hara has disgraced us” when you win a mini game. Have the scene when Lee infiltrated where they make drugs and beat up like 100 as the multi ball video. So many callouts. Music is perfect. Love this artwork style for the playfield. I know it’s not a “family” game but not everything has to be for kids.

73898ADC-ACC5-4E5B-9D43-FD33B6CF0EEB (resized).jpeg

That's an awesome idea, like a push forward on the battlefield if you win , if you lose you lose ground. Or whatever......so much potential!

"Soon Stern will be making another run....of Premiums..."

bVA.gif

I think it would make a great theme . This is the thread I started 3 years ago .
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/would-world-war-ii-make-a-good-theme
I would even break it down to titles like , The Western Front , D-Day , Pearl Harbour , Pacific War , ect .
You could pick which side you wanted to play as , have a four player game and see who conquers the most countries .
But you will have the usual group of people saying , that you're having fun at the expense of people who died and you are insensitive .
It's funny how no one blinks an eye if it's a video game like Medal of Honour or Call of Duty but if it's a pinball machine suddenly you're an evil prick .

I like that a lot, before you play you pick your battle. Honestly though, why hasn't this been done before being the age of most of us who own and buy these things? You would THINK it would be a great hit with most of us! right?

Is that really how it goes around here? Please tell me no.

Have a look through my old thread , I remember there being some pretty negative comments .
I love your avatar , we used to call my stepfather Klyuts

Ugh! smh......

haha yeah I still remember seeing Flash Gordon in the theatres as a kid!

That is an awesome post!

It's probably because there is no rating system for pinball like the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is for video games. With video games, you can point to the rating and say it is inappropriate for children, so you can do whatever you want.

I think pinball is all assumed to be rated PG.

The big issue I see is that a theme like WW2 would probably need to take itself pretty seriously and there wouldn't be a lot of room for "fun" callouts or anything. I kind of feel like the gameplay options for such a theme would work quite well but the overall experience would tend to, and almost need to, feel much too somber for a fun game.

I get what you're saying , but there are people who just don't approve of violence even if it's historically accurate .
Pinball is getting more edgy , Sopranos , Guns N Roses and Rick and Morty come to mind .

Have you seen Kelly's Heroes ?

IMG_20220128_021439 (resized).jpg

Eh, I would look at it like a Call of Duty game like screaminr said. If nobody had any "fun" there wouldn't be endless amounts of board games or video games associated with this like there are.

Well, there is plenty of humor if you look at propaganda from the time or something like Hogans Heros. However it would never fly in the US anymore, and that gets to another core issue…hard to imagine how it has any kind of global appeal given the different experiences of different countries, and most wars have winners and losers. For example, I can’t imagine a euro built pin themed on an Afghanistan war that mocks the US pullout even slightly would do well here…

I do love WWII and military themed movies and content.

They made that America's Army arcade machine as a recruiting tool a few decades ago. Why not an America's Army or Navy themed pinball machine subsidized by the USG clogging up bars nationwide?

GI Bill multiplier!
You've been promoted!
Terrorist captured!

I get where you're coming from but, from my perspective, call of duty games dealing with ww2 are pretty dry, sort of a re-telling of the war through video games but without any sort of comic, light-hearted twist. I just don't think that approach is a good fit for pinball. I think you need a light-hearted, joking approach to make it "fun." And then if you do make light of WW2 or treat it with anything other than a serious tone, I feel like there might be backlash.

Pinball historically is bar material. PLENTY of non-PG machines out there. Stern Playboy had optional nudity for the little bead screen that pulled back when you won.

WWII, bad guys are Nazis and everything else pretty much takes care of itself. There's a pretty tiny contingent of people that would be offended by a game that lets you defeat and humiliate Nazis.

“Man, you come straight out of a comic book!”

A Call of Duty WW2 pin based on the online multiplayer aspect of the game would work great. A story based campaign pin may too heavy and dark. If the pin focuses on strictly combat it could work. Neutralizing waves of enemies, collecting supply drops, setting up your players loadout for different gameplay approaches like: Close combat shotgun run n gun, sniping, explosive specialist etc etc. Maybe each soldier type is a mode that you have to master to qualify wizard modes. Game could have a parallel map approach like JP. Move through Europe participating in historic battles against the Axis forces. Could be really cool and exciting gameplay. Co-op and vs co-op would be amazing too!

Dad rock bands are the last of good rock.. thats the issue. Music is horrible these days.

Or is it just that the good new stuff is not on the radio and you need to seek it out…and havnt. Plenty of killer rock bands these days…but radio rock is definitely dead.

The best new rock is on Alt Nation on Sirius XM. I've heard some great stuff on there. Nobody from the classic rock era should give up on what's out there now. I personally think AJR is one of the most innovative bands (albeit slightly more pop than real rock) in a long time.

No real chat about Venom at all, even Rush had more pre reveal chatter. I know I personally cannot wait for a reveal if it is in fact Venom just hoping it’s good and Zombie Yeti on art, mirrored black glass with killer Venom art YES PLEASE!

Yeah I said it

8CF74947-D8AF-46A8-9B8D-55D31192C3AE (resized).jpeg

Right, forgot how many Nazi’s were at Iwo Jima and Midway It is an interesting frame to the discussion though.

Kiss can’t sell merch with their true logo in Germany, and I don’t believe much Nazi imagery is acceptable either. So what does the pin art package look like? If you’re from Eastern Europe perhaps you don’t think WWII started or ended well for your country. The Pacific theater had little connection to Nazis and has it’s own regional memories/history. Atomic multi-ball anyone? Probably not…

Pinball companies say they want global customers and seem to actively try to sell half of their LE’s outside of North America and probably half of their total production if possible. I’m not from Europe/Asia/Australia so their opinions are much more meaningful than mine on WWII global appeal.

However, I stand by my comment. A WWII pin, even Nazi themed, seems very US-centric and wouldn’t be able to leverage much of the humor or propaganda from the era. I’m also empathetic enough to recognize other parts of the world might have very different reactions to WWII, even a Nazi hunt.

So on topic for me…I’d like a Bond pin from any era, Escape From New York for my wife, and anything Elwin designs please.

It’s a terrible idea. What would be wizard mode at end? Drop an Atomic bomb? Let’s be honest, this current younger generation couldn’t stomach what our greatest generation did in WW2.

You're not playing Nazis in every battle, it would be set up like a hex based strategy game, and you'd play all those battles, some against Nazi allies and sometimes against Nazis themselves. There have been hex based computer games rehashing this for decades, and they're quite popular.

Imagination is required to see it, though.

Total Nazi symbol ban was lifted in Germany. It's not outright anymore - artistic use is allowed as of 2018:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45142651

Again, you don't have to get into the minutiae of the war like death camps and atom bomb atrocities. Keep it high level like a great strategy game. It's been done well. Just marry it to a pinball game.

Not sure why I’m replying, I should value my clean downvote record more than you implying my lack of imagination…

But here it goes. I’ve played WWII games going way back. From the board game Squad Leader to recent Call of Duty iterations, et al. I’ve understood and enjoyed them all.

You imagine how a ‘hex strategy’ pinball game plays, I’ll imagine what a company selling products around the world thinks those people want with newly liberated Nazi art opportunities and how their countries get to see and play pinball to revisit history as Nazi/Axis allies…

To stay on topic, I also really want a LOTR vault release. That’s now more ‘next Stern pins’ than I have room for, or my wife would let me have…and ALL the headspace I have for WWII discussions.

Wolfenstein pin. Let’s go!

9A613B3F-7F02-4D07-9327-B385723142AE (resized).jpeg

I don't downvote. At all. Your record is safe.

But this is pinside. If you haven't been downvote bombed, you're playing too safe.

These clips when you hit the drop targets.
1Rl6.gif1Rl8.gif

Well that could very well be true also..

What about Greenland , one of the best disaster movies ever made .

IMG_20220129_053157 (resized).jpg

Tell me you wouldn’t be hyped to see this beautiful mane On a backglass…

C’mon Stern, give us one of the greatest American rock artists of all time.

Okay, okay… I know long shot. But c’mon, LE purchase day one.

5BBF9F1E-24D5-45AA-A869-5CB25E4B2943 (resized).jpeg

Three lives…. Three balls.

93D7253F-78B3-46C9-9D95-02FF85C1902D (resized).png

ADCCC76D-E590-4168-A5E2-05C19E7803F4 (resized).jpeg

YES! Great idea!

It won’t work in Quebec, lol..

I’d rather have the Robin Williams one and not The Crock and Kevin Hart. The Kevin Hart callouts would be cringe beyond belief.

I'd buy it...but not The "Rock" version...

Screenshot_20220129-062806-897 (resized).png

And when you drain?
“ He ain’t going to Hawaii” … lol..

Jumanji original would be good but the new version has better humour.

I’d buy the rock version.

I love the Jumanji narrator dude from the new movie. He could do the call outs.

Only a matter of time:
heatvsioin (resized).jpg

heat2 (resized).jpg